Sexual violence
In more than one-third of countries, at least 5 per cent of young women reported experiences of sexual violence in childhood
Sexual violence is one of the most unsettling of children’s rights violations. As such, it is the subject of dedicated international legal instruments aimed at protecting children against its multiple forms. Acts of sexual violence, which often occur together and with other forms of violence, can range from direct physical contact to unwanted exposure to sexual language and images. ‘Sexual violence’ is often used as an umbrella term to cover all types of sexual victimization.[1] Although children of every age are susceptible, adolescence is a period of pronounced vulnerability, especially for girls.
[1] “Sexual violence against children encompasses both sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children and can be used as an umbrella term to refer jointly to these phenomena, both with regard to acts of commission and omission and associated to physical and psychological violence.” Interagency Working Group on Sexual Exploitation of Children, Terminology Guidelines for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, ECPAT International and ECPAT Luxembourg, Rachathewi, Bangkok, June 2016, p. 16, access PDF.
Sexual violence in childhood
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Resources
Methodology
For further details, see: A Familiar Face: Violence in the lives of children and adolescents, UNICEF, New York, 2017.
Sub-topics
Within the multi-faceted area of violence, current monitoring efforts are focused in two areas, each of which has a dedicated page that can be accessed below.